Roger Goodell continues to play “Blind Man’s Bluff” in the case of officiating.
Two of the “Worst Roughing-The-Passer Call Ever” flags have been thrown in a span of simply 32 hours throughout Week 5 of the NFL season.
Atlanta’s Grady Jarrett was penalized for hugging Tom Brady on the best way all the way down to the bottom Sunday afternoon at Tampa Bay. Chris Jones of the Chiefs dedicated the sin of invading Derek Carr’s private house Monday night time in Kansas City solely to earn the identical sanction.
The solely factor of Jarrett’s scenario extra egregious than the decision was the response. It was deemed the “Worst Roughing-The-Passer Call Ever” inside minutes. Anger unfold throughout the airwaves and interwebs.
“The NFL gives Tom Brady special treatment!” Bradyphobes wailed.
This can be the identical NFL that suspended Brady for 4 video games as a result of he adopted the Ideal Gas Law and wouldn’t hand over his telephone. And it’s the identical Shield that made positive Brady’s title was hooked up to the Dolphins tampering scandal although Brady did nothing unsuitable below all present league tampering guidelines.
The “Only Brady Gets These Calls” narrative didn’t final. By the top of Week 5, eight roughing-the-passer penalties had been referred to as and accepted. Compare that to 16 whistled through the first 4 weeks of the season. This surge was clearly a results of the league finishing its overcorrection after bungling Tua Tagovailoa’s head traumas.
Neither Brady nor Carr supplied a protection for the officers who bailed them out.
“It was a long, unwelcome hug from Grady. He was in the backfield all day,” Brady stated Monday after a protracted, trademark chuckle throughout his weekly bromantic chat with Jim Gray. “I don’t throw flags. What I do throw is tablets.”
The “Worst Roughing-The-Passer Call Ever” Monday night time was the results of Jones touchdown on Carr together with his “full body weight.” It negated a fumble restoration.
“I don’t know if it matters whether we agree or not. They thought he landed on me,” added Carr.
Jones was so flustered he forgot his full physique weight.
“How should I tackle? How should I not roll on him? I am trying my best. I’m 340 … 325 pounds. What do you want me to do?” Jones stated.
QB Patrick Mahomes II spoke a couple of “common sense” issue and coach Andy Reid mused in regards to the “fine line” between defending NFL gamers and Powder Puff Football.
Patriots LB coach and former LB Jerod Mayo Tuesday spoke in regards to the challenges of tackling and sacking QBs in 2022 with out getting a flag (or getting fined whereas discussing it).
“It’s been tough to tackle quarterbacks in general, not only sacks. When a quarterback scrambles. Is he still a quarterback, or is he a running back now?” Mayo stated through the Herald’s Karen Guregian.
The universally fierce critiques shared by previous and current gamers on social media have been additionally on level. Big guys have to land someplace. What goes up should come down. Goodell has by no means been one to embrace physics. His science denial extends to the Law of Gravity.
Pretty quickly, we’ll be watching 7-on-7 flag soccer each fall Sunday at 1 p.m. on CBS.
Just don’t count on to legally guess on it in Massachusetts till Patrick Mahomes III and Benny Brady face off in Super Bowl 78.
The speedy repair can be to make these calls reviewable to find out intent, the identical method through which focusing on calls are adjudicated. Owners reportedly will talk about this problem once they meet subsequent week. But no motion is deliberate.
There’s no rush. This has been happening for the reason that Ford Administration.
Your Father’s Patriots knew how temperamental “roughing the passer” calls will be.
They acquired shafted by the unique “Worst Roughing-The-Passer Call Ever” 46 years in the past.
The 1976 Patriots have been a juggernaut. They went 11-3 and demolished John Madden’s Oakland Raiders 48-17 in Week 4. The Patriots and Raiders then performed within the AFC Divisional playoff recreation at Oakland Coliseum on Dec. 18. The Patriots have been up 21-17 with simply 1:24 to play. The Raiders confronted a Third-and-18 from their very own 28.
Ray “Sugar Bear” Hamilton went full mongoose. He thwarted a cross thrown by Kenny “The Snake” Stabler. It landed incomplete. Hamilton then landed atop the Raiders’ QB.
The Improbable Dream Patriots awaited the winner of the following day’s Pittsburgh-Baltimore recreation for the AFC title.
Not so quick.
Ben “Expletive” Dreith slapped Hamilton with a roughing-the-passer penalty that is still invisible to this present day.
The official rationalization: Hamilton used “excessive force” in touchdown on Stabler. The Raiders went on to win 24-21.
Madden and Dreith believed the name was legit. They stood alone.
“I just figured that someone had held one of our guys,” Hamilton would inform NFL Network. “It couldn’t have been anything else. I was totally shocked. It was just a phantom, bogus call.”
This was 1-9-7-6.
The impetus to ascertain a constant officiating commonplace acceptable to gamers and the general public has by no means been better. Millions watch weekly, and they’re concerned deeper emotionally and financially than ever earlier than.
Gambling is now absolutely embedded with the NFL. Big cash swings forwards and backwards with every questionable whistle. Our eyes see what they see. When your guess lands on the dropping facet of the “Worst Roughing-The-Passer Call Ever” – all you see is crimson.
We nonetheless don’t need to hear about your fantasy staff.
It’s not simply the NFL that’s struggling to maintain human officers employed. Technology is asking balls and strikes in actual time faster than umpires. Those pitches – and these non-existent penalties – are being seen on 70-inch screens airing video games in high-def.
(Unless you’re making an attempt to stream the Thursday night time video games on Prime Video through dial-up.)
The NFL “fixed” its concussion problem with a Saturday afternoon press launch.
This time, there’s nowhere to cover.
These penalties are referred to as reside on nationwide TV for all to witness.
Even in the event that they’re invisible.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF) will be reached at [email protected].
Source: www.bostonherald.com